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I keep seeing the term "Hydration" 70%, 80%. What is this referring to? Obviously a ratio, but to what? 80% fluid? That seems like a lot... Would someone mind sharing either here, or PM a no knead recipe, and take the time to break it down for me hoe the %hydration is calculated or achieved? I know these recipes are mostly by weight, I don't have a kitchen scale, so a volume approximation would be invaluable.

Thanks guys.

Hydration is the percentage of water by weight to the weight of flour, e.g., 60% hydration for 1000 grams of flour would be 600 grams of water. Here's a good example of how it's used in the context of pizza: http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm

Nice updates! I had a few mixed results with using guinness, the last one was good taste wise but did not rise very much. I will continue playing around. I also find the hydration to be tricky. Even if I measure it, they don't always come out the same. Maybe it's the humidity in the environment (although I keep everything in airtight buckets), more likely differences in the time I let the initial dough sit (e.g. 18h room temp versus 18h plus a few h in the fridge). Does anyone have systematic experience with different proofing times? Any recommendations?

Stefan, remember alchohol kills or retards yeast, so the rise will be different, and you may have to work with your formula to get the correct balance when using beer. One thing you can do is heat the beer to 185f for a few minuets and cool it before using. This will evaporate most of the alchohol, and in the case of guinness, probably all, but will not really effect the flavors your looking for in the bread.

On your hydration, even when using air tight buckets (may not be a wise choice though, dough likes to breath) hydration can still be effected by things like humididty, tempature, and most importantly, barometric pressure.

Best thing about bread, just roll with it, tell everyone it's how it's supposed to look, and eat it anyways, lol

Happy baking...

"This is grain, which any fool can eat, but for which the Lord intended a more divine means of consumption.. Beer!" -Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, Friar Tuck

I've been using a no-knead pizza dough recipe for a few years and, depending on how recently the flour was purchased and opened, I've noticed around a 5 to 7% increase in hydration required for the dough the older the flour had been. This is even with keeping the flour in its original bag, but stored in a closed Ziploc gallon freezer bag.

That's why I "age" my four from the mill for two weeks in cotton flour sacks in the basement here before using. Aging also helps some of the wil yeasts present in the raw flour to do some work before using. Not so important or grocery store flour, as that stuff has been on the shelves for god knows how long and in a warehouse for even longer. Fresher is not always better, especially when flour and grains are concerned.

"This is grain, which any fool can eat, but for which the Lord intended a more divine means of consumption.. Beer!" -Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, Friar Tuck

Modernist Cuisine suggested to use a 1/4 thick carbon steel sheet to bake things on. I've had much better sucess with it than a baking stone. check out the neopolitan I made last week. I think it took 90 seconds to cook

Starter question. If a sourdough starter is "not fed" for a couple months, is it considered dead? If I dump out half, and "feed" it again, will it pick up where it left off, or should I start a new one?

Was it in the fridge? If so, leave it out over night, pour off the barm and feed. May take a week or so, but you should be good. I found a starter in my fridge that was over a year old, smelled like paint thinner and ass, an ld after reviving it I still use it.

If not, like left out, give it a try. Mild isn't bad, it will clean itself, as long as its not black or red

"This is grain, which any fool can eat, but for which the Lord intended a more divine means of consumption.. Beer!" -Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, Friar Tuck